Hi All, Please join us tomorrow (June 6) at 10am in CSE2 271 (Gates Center) for the final exam talk of Aditya Vashistha<http://www.adityavashistha.com/>. Title: Social Computing for Social Good in Low-Resource Environments Where: Thu, 06 Jun 2019 10:00 AM, CSE2 271 (Gates Center) as well as on Hangout<http://meet.google.com/hth-qxwo-hmf> Abstract: Mainstream social computing technologies—like social media platforms, online discussion forums, or crowdsourcing marketplaces—have revolutionized how literate people with access to smartphones and the Internet participate in the information ecology and digital economy. However, these technologies currently exclude billions of those who are illiterate, who speak low-resource languages, or who do not have access to Internet-connected devices. To enable these communities to report and access information, global development researchers and practitioners have designed voice-based social computing services by using IVR technology. However, challenges in managing local language audio content, high cost of voice calls, and technical difficulties in setup makes these services difficult to scale, sustain, and replicate despite their demonstrated impact. In this talk, I will present three systems that I built to address these scalability, sustainability, and replicability concerns. Sangeet Swara is a voice-based social media service that uses community moderation from low-income, low-literate people to manage and moderate audio content recorded in local languages. Respeak is a voice-based crowdsourcing marketplace that enables even basic mobile phone users to complete speech transcription tasks to subsidize their cost of voice calls. IVR Junction is free and open source toolkit that makes it easier for global development organizations to build and maintain these services. Together, these systems fulfill my vision of building scalable, sustainable, and replicable voice-based social computing services that enable people without literacy, smartphones, or the Internet to participate in informative dialogues at both community and global scales. Bio: Aditya Vashistha is a graduating Ph.D. student in the Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington (UW). He builds inclusive and appropriate computing technologies to address information and instrumental needs of people living in low-resource communities. His research spans human-computer interaction (HCI), computing for development, and accessibility technology.